Campaigners on Friday
questioned a Nigerian military claim that a second Chibok schoolgirl had been
rescued, but the army maintained she was one of the 219 abducted by Boko Haram.
Yakubu
Nkeki, the head of the Chibok Abducted Girls Parents group, told the AFP the military contacted him before an
announcement was made on Wednesday about the discovery of the first girl, Amina
Ali.
“We
were able to identify her and then establish her parents,” he told AFP. But
there was no call before Nigeria’s army announced late Thursday that a second
schoolgirl had been rescued.
She was said to be Serah Luka,
who was among 97 women and children rescued earlier that day in the Damboa area
of the northeastern state of Borno.
She
told troops and civilian vigilantes she was a Christian pastor’s daughter
originally from Madagali, in neighbouring Adamawa state, and had been in Chibok
to sit her exams.
Nkeki
said his records showed only two girls with the surname Luka.
“These
are Kauna Luka Yana and Naomi Luka Dzakwa. Among the list of pare nts we have
only four priests and none of them is Luka,” he added.
“Among
the girls none of them is from Madagali. They were either from Chibok, Damboa,
Askira and Uba (all in Borno state). So I can say… that this girl is not among
the abducted Chibok girls.
“We
were never contacted by the military for verification of the girl’s identity
before the announcement was made.”
A human
rights activist in Mubi, Adamawa, who asked not to be identified because of the
sensitive nature of his work, also said a Serah Luka was not on the list of the
missing.
A
senior Nigerian military source said it was “beyond reasonable doubt” that the
schoolgirl was among the 219 held by the Islamists since the kidnapping on
April 14, 2014.
“The
military personnel who carried out the rescue operation and the civilian
vigilantes who assisted them and those who know the girl confirmed that she is
among those abducted,” he said.
“We can
only change our position if the principal of the school or the government of
Borno state come out and refute this established identity of the girl.”
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